Aerospace Software Ltd.

Windows Backup

MS Windows, all versions.

Scope

I was asked how to backup Windows machines to a Linux box over the internet. Well, what a doozy - Windows doesn't lend itself well to scripting, but there is a way out: Good old FTP to the rescue!

MS DOS FTP

All versions of MS Windows has a copy of ftp.exe. Open a DOS box and type ftp -h to see the help text.

The trick is to put all commands in a file, one per line, then tell ftp to read the command file. This way, you can run proftp on a Linux box and backup a Windows PC to it..

FTP Batch File

Let's say you want to backup your accounting data to a server on the internet and you want the process to be so easy, that your bookkeeper can do it.

Create a batch file called backup.bat, that looks something like this:

rem FTP backup batch file
ftp -s:ftpcommands

While the ftpcommands file to backup your accounting data, should look something like this:

open ftp.example.com
janedoe
mypassword
lcd c:\accounting
cd /
bin
mput *.*
quit

Put a shortcut to the batch file on the desktop and backing up your accounting data becomes a simple double-click, that your bean counter should be able to manage.

Obviously, this isn't secure, since the password is saved in the command file, but if you are worried about security, then you should not be running MS Windows...

FileZilla FTP GUI

For miscellaneous backup or restore operations, it would be easier to use a GUI. An excellent Free FTP GUI client is available from the FileZilla project on Sourceforge http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/.

Zip Compression

The best way to speed up FTP transfers, is with a zip compression tool. You can get the Free 7-Zip in two versions, GUI and Command Line, from here: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html.

Add a compression step to your FTP batch file and things will transfer much faster, though the compression itself will take some time.

La Voila!